I left work early yesterday to meet a guy that was interested in buying my old tractor. He was driving from Sabastian Florida which is something like three hours away so I knew he was serious. However I was taking a bit of a risk as he told me he was interested Saturday but couldn’t come until Monday. I told him I would hold it for him. Since I committed to that I had no less than a half dozen other people ask me about the tractor. Holding it for this guy with no money in hand made me a bit regretful, especially if something changed and he decided to not follow through on the purchase.
Luckily the guy showed up, albeit almost an hour earlier than we agreed upon. He was a nice guy who moved to Florida from California a couple years prior. He had asked me when I bought the mower and I told him 2011. He thought he caught me in a lie when he read the serial number incorrectly. He saw an 06 started the number, he said he read that indicated the year. I told him it was absolutely bought in 2011 and I have an accessory catalog that came with a tractor dated 2010, something an 06 model would be unlikely to have.
He asked me a few other questions which I answered. After doing so he confirmed he was good to buy it with only a small discount off my asking price which I was happy about. We had to take a couple shots at getting the tractor loaded onto his truck. The first time it got stuck and almost fell off the ramps. He handed me an envelope of cash that I quickly counted and he was on his way. I was glad my faith in him showing up paid off instead of having to deal with people whose number one priority is low balling the shit out of you.
After he left Cindy and I worked on tweaking the tunnel that I built for the birds on Sunday in the rain. Cindy didn’t like that it was so dark because I had the roof and two walls covered with solid materials. I addressed it at first with a hole bit to punch a bunch of “skylights” into the roof of the tunnel. The other change was removing the corrugated PVC roof panel I was using as one wall and replacing it with a piece of hardware cloth to open the one side up completely. We used the cinder blocks to pin down the wire so it could not be moved by a coyote.
I then pulled out the pressure washer which Cindy used to pressure wash the chicken tractor which had a layer of grime on it. The vinyl siding almost looked like new when she was done. Cindy was happy with the changes we made and so was I. It should give the hens at least some variety of spots to hang out during the day instead of just standing in the run looking at each other.
I followed up with the company I bought the fence extensions from to try to get an idea of how quickly they would show up. They said I should have the stuff by this weekend which would be great but I hope I am dealing with an under promise over deliver type of operation.
If you are looking for a happy, uplifting post to start your week you should look elsewhere. My state of mental well being all weekend was not good, I would almost say it bordered on depressed at times. I more than likely have taken my last stride as a runner. My left knee has now got me limping more often than not for around a month. Even if the pain does eventually subside enough to allow me to walk limp free I just can’t justify restarting a cardio activity that includes impact. I’m just asking for knee replacement sooner rather than later. I have non-impact things I can do like the rower, my road bike and Cindy’s new Echelon indoor bike that can easily fit my cardio needs but I used to take a small bit of pride in the fact that I could still run. Letting that slip away is hard.
Saturday morning we had to go to two different Home Depots. I wanted to rent the manual sod roller since good old Miguel never decided to finish the job. The first store had their roller rented out already so we headed down to Naples location instead. The roller was a cheap rental of $25 for the day.
The roller is hollow and designed to be filled up with water. When filled it weighs approximately 300lbs. I filled it up and hooked it up to the back of the new tractor and got to work. 300 pounds is heavy for sure but not compared to the roller Miguel used which looked like a mini-steam roller. I went over all the sod in varying directions. It smoothed things out some but not dramatically.
As I was in the middle of doing one area I saw Cindy looking very upset and crying. I turned off the tractor immediately. Cindy said she just chased what she thought was a fox away from the chicken area. From her description I immediately knew it was actually a coyote. However the reason she was crying was because she could not find our one hen Georgie.
I went out to the chicken area and searched all of the spots she could be hiding and came up empty. I then went inside and checked the coop DVR which thankfully still has a working camera pointed towards the back of the yard. What I saw angered and scared me at the same time. Evidently when Cindy saw the coyote it was coming back for round two. It had already been in and out of the chicken yard in less than 10 seconds, snatching Georgie and clearing the two four foot fences on it’s way out. In no more than 5 minutes it was coming back to try to grab another hen. Thank goodness Cindy at least stopped a second attack from happening.
This happened mid-afternoon which is very unusual. Coyotes are normally nocturnal hunters unless it is a female looking for food for it’s babies. The two other birds we lost to coyotes (more on that in a bit) happened early in the morning. This was a very unusual time for a coyote to be out there. When I saw the attack it was scary just how trivial clearing the four foot fence was for the animal, even with poor Georgie in it’s mouth.
This attack ironically gave clarity to what happened to Stephie when we lost her over a year ago. I came out in the morning to do the coop and she had simply vanished. I thought the lack of feathers and/or blood meant that it could not have been a coyote attack. However if I did not have the DVR working on Saturday we would have no trace of Georgie either as there was no evidence otherwise. The coyote was like a surgeon, in and out of there in no time.
So I had an odd reaction to losing Georgie. I didn’t cry like is normal when we lose a hen, I instead found myself more consumed by anger, guilt and anxiety. The fact that the coyote came back scarcely 5 minutes after taking the first bird was very worrisome. We decided it was not safe for the hens to be outside of the run so we coaxed them all back in there, to their dismay. My mind was racing to come up with some sort of viable solution to the problem. I looked online and found a site called deerbusters.com.
They sell fence extensions that are targeted at keeping deer out but coyotes are mentioned as well. They secure to your existing fence posts to add extra height to stop animals with extreme vertical leaps from getting into a fenced area. It is an expensive solution. I spent near 1K for a kit that will add four feet of height to our chicken fence. Some coyotes can supposedly clear a six foot fence but they definitely are not going to clear eight. Without even chewing on the price for a second I ordered three of the 100 foot kits hoping they will offer us permanent piece of mind.
So now my concern turned to what to do for the chickens until the fence extensions show up. Keeping them locked up in their chicken run all day would be pretty miserable for them. Of course it is better than them getting picked off by coyotes but I still hated the idea of them losing all freedom. Sunday morning I pulled the portable run from the chicken tractor around to the front and placed it in front of the automatic chicken door so they could at least venture out onto the grass if they wanted to. However I had loose ideas about expanding that protected space temporarily.
I headed to Home Depot to pick up some supplies. I just sort of grabbed a bunch of stuff, not quite sure how I would put it all together yet confident I could make something out of it.
The first part of the plan was to install a back door into the existing chicken run. I wanted to be able to utilize the more open space behind the coop. With the help of Cindy we built a nice opening complete with a a locking door. It was very frustrating working conditions because a good portion of the day was off and on torrential rain. I was trying to get the stuff built without getting absolutely soaked. For long periods of time I was just standing in the chicken run, with the chickens waiting for the rain to let up.
After the rear door was complete Cindy headed inside but I continued my work building a Frankenstein like 8 foot tunnel that lead to the side door of the chicken tractor. The tunnel was built with it’s temporary status in mind, I just threw stuff together to give the chickens a safe albeit ugly way to get into the back yard. The design will get some additional tweaking but by the time I called it quits Sunday afternoon I was just mentally drained.
I allowed the chickens to be loose while I was doing the work as I figured I would be their security guard. However the image of the coyote being in and out of there so quickly made me very nervous that it could come back and steal another hen while my back was turned. I was constantly stopping and surveying the back yard.
When we got the solar panels installed we both thought an unintended side benefit was it would make the chicken area less visible from the back of the property which might be good. Well obviously the coyote still figured out where the chickens were and the downside was now MY vision to the back fence line was blocked and I wouldn’t be able to see a coyote until it was right at the chicken fence line. It piled more stress and frustration onto the already sizeable pile I was feeling.
When I reentered the house I was beat up. Lugging around construction materials and spending a lot of time on my shitty knees was a recipe for limp resumption. The rest of the day I just felt whatever my version of depressed was. There have been a lot of shitty situations in the world as well going on around me lately in my personal circle, several of which make my chicken security problems and physical aches and pains seem like blips on a radar. The combination of it seemed to roll in with an over arcing feeling that there were lots of undone things that need my attention. It all just left me feeling what felt like my version of depressed, which isn’t something I encounter very often. I’m usually too busy to worry about it.
There of course were some bright spots to the weekend. Deb came by Saturday night and the three of us watched Old Guard on Netflix. To be honest it wasn’t as good as I hoped it may be. I’d give it a B. I hopefully have someone coming to buy the old tractor today after work. I am taking a risk as I am holding it for him without any cash. Since he said he wanted to buy it I have turned away at least a half dozen other potential buyers that have expressed interest.
I do find the selling process on any of these online venues aggravating. I listed the Craftsman tractor for $650. I got a ton of messages from people that ask nothing about the tractor, just a stupid low ball offer dollar figure. The lowest was $200. In each case I tell people that I prefer to not negotiate until they at least see the tractor in person.
Yesterday I was texting with my vball partner and buddy Randall. I had saw on Facebook that a friend of his that he cycles with often was in the ICU with Covid 19. He has been in there for almost a week. When I checked in it sounded serious not only medically but potentially financially as he did not have insurance. In the locust swarm of conflicting information with statistics and talking heads filling the public with doubt and skepticism this was like a lighthouse of reality. Yes Covid 19 is serious.
I know people that have had the virus but up until this point none of them were affected seriously by it outside of normal flu symptoms. This was the first time a hospitalization was in a circle that touched my circle. I have a number of people in my FB circle that are covid naysayers, mask haters, and not coincidentally Trump supporters. Unfortunately the covid 19 stuff is just like so many other examples of people not giving a fck about a situation that affects others, for example climate change, pay inequity, health insurance, or racism. If the problem is not standing on their doorstep looking them squarely in the face they ignore it and declare the problem to be marginalized because if it doesn’t affect them directly in that moment, it can’t be serious. This attitude sickens me.
The last two days I have had my One Wheel Pint in the trunk of the Tesla. I have used it to commute from the parking garage and fitness center to the office. Normally I am all for the extra steps that walking around the campus provide me. However with my left knee going on a month of chronic pain I thought cutting the 1000-2000 steps I perform to get to and from those places might be beneficial for a couple days. As you can imagine I got quite a few strange looks as I snaked around the parking garage with my backpack, lunchbox, and DD coffee in hand.
My mental list for the weekend is already teeming to the brim. I am going to try to rent a manual sod roller from Home Depot which I will pull around the 17 pallets of grass that was laid. Since it seems a pretty safe bet that Miguel has no intention of finishing the work I may as well spend the money I was going to pay him to rent the equipment to do it myself.
Yesterday on the way to work I talked about the latest Tesla update that added some cool new features. I also discussed the second half of the road trip, especially the hit and run incident as well as the near miss on I-95. Feel free to check it out if you have 20 minutes to kill.
For a long time I have been waiting for my second YouTube channel, EUC Army, to reach 1000 subscribers. It is the channel where I ONLY post PEV videos. Getting to 1000 subscribers means I can start monetizing the videos there as well which presumably should help boost my monthly ad revenue check from Google. Of course I am nowhere near the point where I could hope to create enough secondary income to retire early from the conventional workforce but that doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying. 🙂
I am not doing well physically for the last several months. It all started with the shoulder injury that left my right arm dead for the better part of two weeks. As far as I can guess this was brought on by doing thousands of push ups and little else for resistance training while the gyms were closed. I went to a month of physical therapy which brought basic function back to the shoulder but push ups and pull ups still do not feel normal by any means.
Another thing I started doing during lock down was running the parking garage on Fridays. It was tough but I enjoyed the extra challenge of running the inclines and declines of the ramps. Three or four Fridays ago I completed a run and didn’t recall feeling anything outside of the normal fatigue during the run. However that night my left knee which is my “good” one that has not been operated on, started to hurt, badly.
Over the last 20 years I have had a lot of knee problems, mostly volleyball related. The two surgeries I had were on my right knee for meniscus damage. Based on that experience I am pretty sure I have some meniscus damage in my left knee as well now. The symptoms are swelling and pain in the joint that leave me walking around like someone out of a geriatric ward. It’s especially bad when I get up after sitting for awhile whether it be in the car or my office chair. The first 20-30 steps it hurts badly to put weight on the leg.
Like I said I have two decades of dealing with knee issues. I am hoping whatever is floating around in there causing inflammation dissolves or heals. The last thing I want to do is entertain the idea of getting surgery on the left knee. There is a good chance that this event has signaled the end of my running days. It may be exclusively low impact cardio for me from here on out. I am trying to walk the tight rope between letting it heal and doing my normal activities both at home and the gym. So far it feels like I am doing a pretty poor job at balancing as my limp is as bad as ever this far removed from the original injury.
The other part of my body that has been not feeling great is my lower back. I have a pretty steady soreness back there which is punctuated by disturbing crunching sounds from that region when I do certain movements at home and at the gym. That injury isn’t nearly as debilitating as the knee thing so I am more or less ignoring that one.
It really is pointless for a 52 year old man to complain about aches, pains, and injuries. It’s all part of what you deal with as you age. My tendency to still try to push myself in ways perhaps unwise for someone my age doesn’t help the situation but I’m unwilling to go peacefully into the night of oldness.
So is it more or less inevitable that the majority of the population will contract covid 19 either symptomatically or asymptomatically? It sure is seeming that way to me more and more everyday. The amount of confirmed cases are through the roof and there are likely 5-10 more unconfirmed cases for every confirmed one because asympotmatic people normally wont get tested. I heard that 40% of people going into hospitals for non-covid reasons are testing positive for the virus, just to give you an idea of how widespread it is.
The other alarming thing is how the ICU bed availability, which was mocked by the no maskers a couple months ago is now approaching capacity in hotspot locations, which there are many of. I find it incredible that many businesses and sports leagues that deal with large masses of human beings are pressing forward to reopen. I just don’t know how you can do it if minimizing transmission is the objective.
At some point I think that contracting covid 19 is going to be more likely than less likely. For the majority of the population it should be a minimal event however if you are in the unlucky group of people that have a very bad experience with the virus you are out of luck. However even if the inevitable outcome is mass infection I don’t think it excuses people from doing whatever they can to take responsibility for minimizing their chances of transmitting covid 19. Asking people to knock down their transmission circle with a mask and not voluntarily putting yourself into crowded situations wherever possible isn’t a huge request IMO. I know being courteous of others is not something that is regularly practiced in modern US society but hopefully this mess is enough to bring it back into fashion.
In a blink of an eye the three day holiday weekend has come and gone. It is sort of nuts just how much stuff was packed into those 72 hours but then again this is how I mostly chose to live my life. On Friday I had two major rides I needed to get done for my V11 review series, a ride to Dunkin Donuts and then a longer ride to Ave Maria later in the day. In total those rides added up to over 55 miles. Of course being away last weekend meant I had house chores piled up, the yard badly needed to be attended to. As the wheel charged in between rides I got out and weed whacked which felt just brutal in the stifling heat and humidity.
The wheel wasn’t done recharging until close to 5PM. As soon as the charger light went green I hit the road heading towards Ave Maria. It was a pretty brutal ride as my knee and lower back have not been doing well. The last 10 miles of the ride was just will power.
I stayed up late Friday night getting one of the two videos edited and uploaded. On Saturday I had two more videos to shoot and a yard to mow. This was my first time mowing with my new Husqvarna tractor. It feels like a Cadillac compared to my 9 year old plus Craftsman which is literally falling apart. I did one mod to it already, removing the front bumper bar. It would be nice to have a bumper but it protrudes out another foot or so off the front of the tractor, making certain mowing maneuvers I am used to doing, impossible.
I need to disable the seat interlock which turns off the tractor when you aren’t firmly seated. This interlock triggers even while going over bumps so it’s really annoying. The third mod I am considering is trimming down the chute cover on the tractor which is ridiculously long.
I bought a 42 inch deck tractor so I could fit into various tight spaces on the property, including the gates to the front yard and the chicken area. The chute cover is so extended it makes the 42 inch deck as wide as a 52 inch deck. For my first mowing session I just pulled the cover up each time I went through a tight spot but it is sort of a hassle.
Outside of those mods, the tractor did a good job although I think I had the deck setting too low as it scalped a few spots in the yard. I also think I need to adjust some of the deck guide wheels. The Kawasaki motor in the Husqvarna, although being rated as 3HP less the the Briggs and Stratton in my Craftsman mower, feels more powerful.
Over the weekend I took the beat to hell canopy off the Craftsman and Cindy cleaned it up to get it ready to sell. I mowed in the blazing sun with just my wide brimmed hat as protection. It made me anxious to get a sun shade on the Husqvarna as well, it’s just too damn hot otherwise. On Saturday evening Deb came over again for a visit. Her and Cindy always are funny when together so I get entertainment out of the get togethers.
What wasn’t entertaining was the non-stop fireworks that went late into the night. Poor Elsa spent most of the evening shivering in the bathtub. Loud noises just terrify her. With no conventional public firework displays it gave people all the more reason to load up and shoot their own shit up in the air. There was a time in my life where I thought fireworks were cool. That time has passed.
Sunday followed the same pattern as the rest of the weekend, getting stuff done. I was both inside and outside attending to stuff after Cindy and I ran to my office in the morning so I could do a brief after hours task. I finally got my one Prusa printer back up and running. I rely heavily on the Prusa printers for my stand production since they offer the best print quality. With as many printers I have it always seems like one or two need something fixed.
It felt good to get a lot of stuff done over the holiday weekend. I emerged from the other side limping but satisfied.
I still have testing to do on the V11 and a limited time frame to do it so I decided to get my swamp ride in last night, the perfect test for a suspension EUC. I had never entered the swamp in the evening so it was a bit different. The high temps and humidity had me sweating through my t-shirt in no time whatsoever. The wheel pleasantly surprised me with how well it performed absorbing the countless bumps along the swamp trail. The experience solidified my excitement for having picked the V11 as my suspension wheel.
I only have a two day week since the office is closed tomorrow for 4th of July since it occurs over a weekend. Since I was away last week I have a literal TON of things I want to get done which has to be blended in with me wrapping up my filming of the V11 for my review series. As always I will plow full speed ahead until I something stops me.
I don’t have the time, patience, or memory to recap my six day road trip to PA in exquisite detail. Often I will try to write as I am on the road to make the process easier. Because I spent a lot of that free time documenting and making videos about the V11 I did not have any spare time to blog stuff.
I pulled out a little after 7AM on Thursday morning. My route was not what it normally would be for a road trip where I would head directly north on I-75. Instead I headed across Alligator Alley to pick up the Inmotion V11 demo wheel from Mickey. Once I was there we rode around and talked for a little bit so it put me at a time deficit that affected the rest of my travel for the day.
Up until the point, the farthest I ever went in the Tesla was the Orlando area, this was my first interstate road trip. The car makes the process pretty painless as long as you don’t mind the 30 minute breaks to supercharge. The roughly 1200 mile trip required 7 supercharging stops to complete the journey. It really isn’t as big of a deal as it may seem as you are going to normally be stopping for bathroom and food breaks anyway. I tried to combine these together wherever possible.
Most of the superchargers were nearby retail locations so I had options. There was one in particular that had no amenities whatsoever. The superchargers were located in an overflow parking lot of an airport. I had to pay to park there (only 1$) but there was nothing around. I had to pee like crazy so my restroom at that location was the woods nearby. I also spent some time charging riding around the V11, some of which I recorded.
I ended my first day of travel in Santee, SC. I stayed at a Holiday Inn that was overpriced for what it offered. Despite driving until 10PM I only had covered about half of the miles to PA, due to my late start. Despite the long day I was still more or less enjoying the adventure of the road trip. That excitement wore out about halfway through the second day.
My drive on Friday was going ok until I got closer to the Washington DC area. I became ensnared in seemingly endless traffic that pushed me to the brink. I saw at least a half dozen accidents during that time period. When I started off the day the car predicted my arrival in Lenhartsville would be around 6:30PM. I didn’t actually get there until after 9PM Friday night. I was greeted by my dad, stepmom, Patrick and Nico who drove in from Pittsburgh. I immediately plugged the Tesla in to an outlet in dad’s garage. I wasn’t thrilled when I saw it was only charging at 1 KW rate which is dreadfully slow, even for 110 volt power. For reference sake at a supercharger I am pulling power as fast as 175KW.
My late arrival meant we only hung out briefly before packing it in for bed. Two days of driving past 9PM in a row had left me pretty worn out. Of course I said hi to Clara their dog. It felt strange and sad to not have Maggie there as well, who passed away recently. She was always a very fun part of the dad visitation experience for the last 15 years.
I slept well Friday night . On Saturday after downing a bowl of cereal dad and I went out to supercharge the Tesla, it was his first ride in one. The closest supercharger was about 15 miles away in Allentown. Dad was impressed with the way the car drove and just how quickly supercharging occurs. After we were done I grabbed a Dunkin Donuts coffee and we made a stop at dad’s newspaper source before heading home.
Patrick and I did some EUC riding later that morning. He had brought his Segway S1 that I bought him a couple years ago. He has gotten proficient at riding since then. We rode the big grassy areas of the property before heading down the gravel road.
As we traveled Patrick spotted a steep washed out stone path up the middle of a cornfield. He said that would be a good test of the V11 that I was riding. I agreed and took a shot at climbing it. Points of the road were extremely steep, steeper than I have ever ridden on an EUC. I had to stop and start a couple times during the climb but I did complete it. It was an unexpected but pretty cool test of the power of this new suspension wheel.
Prior to Todd’s party I had run out to get a pair of headphones to help me edit video during the trip. Walmart was my closest option. As I was waiting to make a left turn into the shopping center I all of sudden feel and hear impact to the car from the rear. WTF??? I look in the rear view mirror and see a Ford Explorer pressed up against the rear of my Tesla.
I shot out of my car, angry. I approach the Ford and see an older woman behind the wheel, staring straight ahead. She seemed a bit dazed. Seeing it was an old woman took a bit of my aggression away. I asked her what happened. She continued to stare ahead and just said “I don’t know….”
I told her we can pull up into the shopping center so we weren’t blocking traffic. She said nothing but I assumed she understood. The turning arrow went green and I pulled up into the parking lot of a McD’s. The woman did not follow, instead she just stayed at the light and let it turn red. In the meantime I got out of the car to survey the damage. I felt somewhat relieved when all I could see was a small nick in the paint from the front license plate screw.
I walked over to the edge of the hill waiting, so the woman could clearly see me. The turn arrow went green and she pulled into the shopping center. But instead of coming into the lot where I was she continued driving, right out the other side and back onto the roads. As she drove by me I stood there with my arms out in disbelief, this old lady hit and run me. At that moment I did a very fast effort/value calculation. I could have jumped in my Tesla and tried to track her down but she already had a large head start on me and I could not tell which direction she went once she got out of my sight. I factored in that the damage was very minor and the time/effort that would be involved with chasing her down and/or getting local police involved. I did not have that sort of time since Todd’s party was that afternoon. I decided to let the old confused woman go without chase. I could only hope karma bites her in the ass at some point.
Todd’s party was scheduled to start at 3PM. I originally wanted my visit to be a surprise but my presence was revealed by my stupidity. I had posted some pictures to InstaGram which I didn’t think Todd was a member of. However I didn’t think about how I had my account set to automatically post pictures to Facebook as well, which Todd saw. I felt dumb but oh well, it’s the thought that counts I guess.
The weather forecast was looking iffy with rain. The idea of having 30+ people indoors was not something that appealed to me at all and I had my mask packed for that situation. Instead the rain stopped and most of the party was held in a mix of sun/cloud outdoors. Todd’s girlfriend Mindy really put effort into the event, having it catered with two large tents and ample decorations everywhere. Although the element of surprise was lost Todd was still glad to see me.
I did not know most of the people at the party which was not unexpected. I spent most of the time by the pool area hanging with my sister Meg and her family. Their two little girls are beyond cute. There was copious amounts of food and drink available. I only had three or four drinks over the roughly 3-4 hours I was there, conscious that I had to drive the Tesla home to Lenhartsville.
I intentionally tried to limit my interactions with others as nobody was wearing a mask outside of one person I saw briefly. Being outdoors and spread out helped some but I still could not get away from the feeling that this was not the best thing to be doing during a pandemic that is speeding up instead of slowing down.
I did get to also interact with Oakley and Bailey the two huge Alaskan Malamutes. They were in the back yard instead of their crates which was nice. Unfortunately with their shaggy coats being designed for frigid climates instead of humid PA summer, both dogs looked very hot and uncomfortable.
On Sunday morning I wanted to go find a shoo fly pie to take back home for Cindy. My dad told me a place called Dietrich’s Meats had them and was relatively nearby. I had never heard of the place before but evidently it is a big deal.
When I walked into the store it was pretty busy with people mulling about looking at the various meat products including pickled pig snout and feet to name a couple. I quickly found the shoo fly pies and grabbed two, one for us and one for Patrick who requested one. As I was waiting to check out an old lady, who I later found out was named Verna, was trying to get me to buy some peach pies. She told me they were just out of the oven and were delicious. I told her I am sure they are delicious but all I needed was the shoo fly for now. My dad and Teresa said Verna always is trying to sell more pies. They also said people drive in from far away as New York to patronize Dietrich’s. I guess their meat is just that good, too bad my diet doesn’t include most of what they sell.
Later in the day my dad, Pat and Nico went on a little trip in the Tesla. The first stop was Wanamaker’s General Store, a super quaint and old fashioned general store. In some ways it reminded me of Brightbills, the only store in Gouglerville, where I grew up, where I bought most of my baseball card collection.
I bought my only non-shoo fly souvenirs from the trip there, they had an interesting combination of stuff there including conventional grocery items and a sandwich shop, which we ordered our lunch from. We enjoyed our lunch outside on a picnic table while we watched an old passenger train that is a tourist attraction load up and roll out. It was an unexpected little experience that I really liked.
Dad then steered us to an ice cream shop that literally seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. The narrow road twisted up through the woods, opening up to a farm that just happened to have an ice cream shoppe. It again was a very cool place with delicious homemade ice cream. The farm also houses several THOUSAND chickens. They sell millions of eggs per year.
We made arrangements to meet up with Todd and his family for dinner at Beverly Hills Tavern where my niece Caroline works. She was working that night so it was a way to see her before I pushed off for Florida the next morning. I had not been to Beverly Hills in probably 25 years. They had added a huge outdoor seating area that I never saw before. Thanks to covid 19 the place was only about half full. They required everyone to wear a mask if they left their table, which is something I guess.
It was nice to have the gang altogether before we all headed back to where we came from. Patrick and Nico where driving straight to Pittsburgh after the meal. I was getting up at 5AM for a very early departure as well. Todd thanked me for coming up and we said goodbye to everyone else. I have made two trips to PA within 6 months, a rarity that is unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.
I tried to get my stuff mostly packed and ready to go Sunday night so I could get out as early as possible Monday morning. Since my car had been plugged in for awhile, even with the dreadfully slow charge rate, it was full and ready to go by the time I left at 6AM. I said goodbye to my dad and stepmom. Even though it was a lightning quick two day visit it felt like I crammed a lot of memories into that relatively short time period.
The drive south over the next two days went dramatically better than the way up. I hit no appreciable traffic and thanks to my “steering wheel balancer” I was able to more or less experience FSD (full self driving) on the interstates for the vast majority of the drive. It felt like I was in a one person train. I pushed hard the first day, getting all the way to Kingsland Georgia. I used a different charging strategy on the way back that saved time. Instead of charging my car almost to full, I charged it just enough to ensure I could make it to the next supercharging destination. Doing so really helped shave off some charge time along the way.
Getting so far on Monday allowed me to get home by 2PM on Tuesday which was great. I arrived to a new mower sitting in the garage which was just dropped off a few minutes prior to my arrival. Elsa and Cindy both gave me a very warm greeting which was much appreciated. Cindy showed me our bedroom which she had repainted while I was gone. The new color is a big change but I like it.
From the time I got home until bedtime felt like a big blur. I was buzzing around the house tending to all sorts of things. Even when I stopped to eat dinner and watch some shows with Cindy my mind was still processing all that yet needed to be done over the next few days. The trip was fun adventure but as is always the case, it was great to be home with all things familiar with our little family unit in place. If you want to see a video of the drive up, here you go.
Like most things in the world Covid 19 has become weaponized as a political tool. Those that try to be conscientious of others by wearing masks, limiting social engagement and things of the sort are now “libertards”. Those that could care less about taking measures to limit their ability to infect others are hell yea maverick ‘mericans! Freedom!
My opinion on the subject as it is often the case, falls on both sides. Does it seem clear to me that there has been a bunch of conflicting information put out via mass media regarding covid 19? Yes. Do I think there have been efforts to inflate covid 19 numbers to generate both fear and revenue? Without a doubt it has. The medical industry has been extremely generous attaching the covid 19 code to hospitalization cases and especially deaths because it results in significantly more payment being sent to them by the government. George Floyd will go down in the books as being a covid 19 death even though he was asymptomatic and had a police officers knee on his neck for 8 minutes and change. Do I think that the affect of covid 19 is drastically more deadly than the yearly flu? The numbers say only slightly so, at best. I think the higher mortality rates at the beginning of this were reflective of a poor understanding of how to treat it. It seems like putting someone on a ventilator, which was initially described as life saving was actually in reality more of a death sentence.
On the flip side, do I think it’s a bad thing for people to wear masks to knock down their personal transmission radius? No of course not. Do I think that making steps to practice social distancing and increased personal hygiene is wasted effort? Nope, in fact I think some aspects of this will become the new norm, at least for the foreseeable future. There are still a lot of fuzzy facts regarding covid 19 and until we have a clear picture, asking people to practice these admittedly somewhat inconvenient actions is not the end of the world.
Mis and disinformation in our society is so rampant that developing an opinion based on actual facts is increasingly difficult if not impossible to do. It seems like most people skip the fact finding effort all together and rely solely on internet memes to both entertain and inform themselves.
